In the previous instalment of this series, William Day, dividing his time between residences in Liverpool, England, and Springfield, Massachusetts, gained substantial wealth in the 1750s from his activities in trans-Atlantic shipping and privateering against the French, gained an estate in Sheffield, Massachusetts, as a result of his father's wise understanding of the colonial urge for each generation to swarm, but lost his wife Peggy. Although America and Britain remained at war with France, we shall see that William (or perhaps another captain with the same name and home port; red herrings are a major element of this resource) was not averse to making the occasional business trip across the ocean.
| Colour key | Family | Household / Community | Sea trade | War | Background | Possibly our William | Probably not | Back to Part 2 |
| 1760 |
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| 24 Jan 1760 |
... Ingersol, Eunice Married 24 Jan 1760 Westfield,Hampden,MA | ||
| 24 Jan 1760 |
Jonathan Ingersoll and Eunice Moseley had their names entered with their Intentions of Marriage and publication thereof set up as the law directs October 28th day 1738. Jonathan Ingersoll and Eunice Moseley was joined in Marriage by John Ashley, Esqr. Nov. 15th 1738. Captain Jonathan Ingersoll died in Battle September 8th 1755 at Lake George. | ||
| 24 Jan 1760 |
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| 21 Mar 1760 |
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| 22 Jul 1760 |
20 May Providence, Day arrived from St. Kitts | ||
| 1761 |
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| 21 Sep 1761 |
[Gorée is an island in the bay south of Dakar, west Africa, where slaves were brought to be sold] | ||
| 21 Sep 1761 |
Place where voyage began Boston Principal place of slave purchase Gorée Principal place of slave landing Boston Date voyage began 1760-11-13 Date vessel arrived with slaves 1761-09-21 Captain's name Day Total slaves embarked 76 Total slaves disembarked 75 [Sources:] Donnan,III,67: Donnan, Elizabeth, Documents Illustrative of the Slave Trade to America, 4 vols. (Washington, DC, 1930-33). MedfordHS,Slave Trade Letters,1761.11.01.: http://www.medfordhistorical.org/slavetradeletters.php | ||
| 24 Sep 1761 |
On September 24, 1761, enslaved Africans aboard the Boston sloop ship Thomas, commanded by Thomas Day, revolted off the coast of Africa, and broke through the hatches “and rose upon the Crew, but were soon overcome and subdued, their Ring leader being Shot and kill’d, and others wounded.” | ||
| 24 Sep 1761 | 
The Sloop Thomas, Capt. Day, was one of the Vessels that was protected under the Fort which the French Frigate attacked, as mentioned in our last ...
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| 28 Sep 1761 |
Entred Inwards. ... Sloop Thomas, William Day from Africa. [also in BOSTON Evening-Post + Boston-Gazette, AND COUNTRY JOURNAL] [Note that this report shows Joseph Holloway mistakenly gave the ship name "Thomas" to its commander] | ||
| 26 Oct 1761 |
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| 1 Nov 1761 |
Boston 1st November 1761 Sir- This I hope will be delivred you by Capt. Spear who saild from hence last Winter with Capt. Day in the Sloop that loaded at the F. [?=Fort] for Affrica, who We Thought when you saild last from hear, thay ware missing but soon after you saild thay arrived hear from Goore with about 70 or 80 of the primest Slaves that I ever saw in my life not One old or child amoungst them but Chiefly Prime Young men & Boys, thay did not luse one Slave in the Voyage or had thay even One sick or mangie Pearson amoungst thare whole Cargo. in short thay ware so Very likely thay Sold off Imediately at a very high Rate for cash Down Notwithsta' our market had been so Glutted before with Slaves - I inquired very perticularly of the master his method of manigen them & I think he gave a good & Rational aud't of the matter in the first place he took care to purchase none that was anyways aling or sick; if Taken Sick on Board he would sepperate them from the Rest, he fead them chiefly upon Corn Pownded he dont approve of much Rice by any means When ever any mangey or Itch pearson appeard he imediately Oynted them with Brimstone till he Kild it for the Itch or Croccoo being long upon them gets into thare Blood & Bread other disorders & so runs through the whole Cargo Which may be Easily prevented if taken in Time - Keeping thare spirretts up & Exercise is good by all means - However you have sean so much of the Nature of the Trade that I doubt not you are a good judge of the matter - ... Capt. Day had like to have ben Cutt off by his own slaves rising, thay ware forst to fire in amoungst them & kild One & wounded others before thay could lay them. ... Timothy Fitch | ||
| 23 Nov 1761 |
[also in Green & Russell's BOSTON Post-Boy & Advertiser] | ||
| 28 Nov 1761 |
Yesterday arrived here Capt. Day, from the Coast of Africa, with a Number of fine Slaves. While they were on the Coast the Negroes rose upon the Crew, but were soon quieted, after killing one, and wounding several. | ||
| 28 Jan 1762 |
Read and Ordered That the Prayer thereof be granted ... (Passed January 28 [Westfield was the home-town of Lucretia Sacket, who married the mystery William Day in 1759] | ||
| 8 Apr 1762 |
Entred In, ... Schooner Penobscot, John Day from Turks Island [also in Green & Russell's BOSTON Post-Boy & Advertiser, 12 Apr 1762, p3] | ||
| 7 Dec 1762 |
5 Happy Return, Day arrived from Rotterdam | ||
| 3 Jan 1763 |
OUTWARD BOUND, ... Day for Africa, ... [also in Green & Russell's BOSTON Post-Boy & Advertiser] [This is one of the most tantalising reports, both because it could be William, and because it is not clear what happened next.] | ||
| 24 Jan 1763 |
[also in Boston-Gazette, AND COUNTRY JOURNAL] | ||
| 4 Mar 1763 |
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| 18 Apr 1763 |
Sloop Thomas, Capt. Spear, of this Port, and Capt. Roger Richards of New-York, at Goree, about the middle of January all well. | ||
| 30 Aug 1763 |
28 Aug Richard & Ann, Day arrived from Ostend | ||
| 17 Oct 1763 |
ENTERD IN, ... Day from South-Carolina ... [also in BOSTON Post-Boy & Advertiser] | ||
| 17 Oct 1763 |
... Schooner Fly, Day, [from] South-Carolina [also in Massachusetts GAZETTE And BOSTON NEWS-LETTER] | ||
| 1764-7 |
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| 10 Feb 1764 | Springfield births: next William after 1715 is the son of mystery-William & Lucretia, born 10 Feb 1764 (their first child, Lucretia, was born 12 Mar 1760; their last in Springfield was Cynthia, 4 May 1769) | ||
| 12 Mar 1764 |
Balance due to James Day when he was a collector of taxes is remitted to him | ||
| 25 May 1768 |
An Act for building and maintaining a Bridge over the Great-River [i.e. the Connecticut River] in Westfield, in the County of Hampshire. [The modern Hampden County was not split from Hampshire until 1812] WHEREAS a Bridge over the Great-River in Westfield, in the County of Hampshire, at or near the common fording Place near the Dwelling-House of William Day, upon the Great-Road from Springfield to Westfield, is necessary as well for the Inhabitants of the other Towns in said County as of the said Town of Westfield; and the Building and Maintaining a Bridge there would be a Burthen too great for the Town of Westfield, considering the Charges they have already laid out and must expend in building and maintaining many other Bridges in said Town: Be it enacted ... [etc.] | ||
| 1 Nov 1770 |
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| in 1770 |
First. — It was provided that all the lands along the river, immediately adjoining the home lots of the settlers, together with lands on the North Plain, and a tract lying west of Monument Mountain, should be so divided as to "make the home, or settling lot, of every proprietor equal to the largest settling lot laid out to any proprietor by the settling committee." The laying out of the lands thus appropriated, was, however, delayed for twenty years, or until 1770, when they were surveyed by Captain William Day, and his surveys were only accepted and recorded fifteen years later in 1785. These tracts are known as the Equalizing land. | ||
| 1771 | There was a John Hubbell in Connecticut in the 1740s (born at Stratford, died at Fairfield) but none of his children seems to have been named Rhoda. | ||
| 1771 |
83.Mabel Dewey, born May 22, 1718 in Westfield, Mass; died December 28, 1760 in Sheffield, Mass.She was the daughter of 166. Samuel Dewey and 167. Rebecca Ashley. Child of Ithamer Hubbell and Mabel Dewey is: 41. Rhoda Hubbell, born August 14, 1757 [recte 1747]; died July 25, 1795 in Sheffield, Mass; married William Day 1771 in Sheffield, Ohio. [recte Mass.] | ||
| in 1771 |
1 house [no shop or other business premises] 6a pasture (enough for 4 cows); 15a tillage; 90 bushels of grain produced per year; 18 barrels of cider produced per year; 3 acres of English & upland mowing land, 3 tons of English & upland hay produced per year; 12 acres of fresh meadow, 12 tons of fresh meadow hay produced per year. 3 horses; 4 oxen; 4 cows; 7 goats/sheep; 4 swine 1 Servant for Life [911 white citizens of the Bay colony owned between them 1,169 adult “servants for life,”] Annual worth of estate £12. (trading stock 0; value of factorage or commissions 0) Money lent at interest £40. [No other Day households in Sheffield, but various in Springfield] | ||
| 6 Apr 1772 |
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| 20 Nov 1772 |
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| 15 Feb 1773 |
BOSTON At a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Sheffield, legally warned and assembled, at the Meeting House, on the 5th day of January, 1773. Colonel JOHN ASHLEY chosen Moderator. Voted, To chuse a committee to consist of Eleven persons, to take into Consideration the Grievances which Americans in general, and the Inhabitants of this Province in particular, labour under; and to make a Draught of such Proceedings as they think are necessary for this Town, in these critical Circumstances, to enter into.-- The following Persons were for that Purpose nominated and chosen, viz. Mr. Theodore Sedgwick, Deacon Silas Kellog, Col. Ashley, Doctor Lemuel Bernard, Mr. Aaron Root, Major John Fellows, Mr. Philip Callender, Capt. William Day, Deacon Ebenezer Smith, Capt. Nathaniel Austin, and Capt. Stephen Dewey; then Voted, That this Meeting be adjourned to the 12th day of January current. AT a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Sheffield, by Adjournment, at the Meeting House on the 12th Day of January 1773. Ordered, That the Committee appointed by this Meeting on the 5th Day of January Current, make Report of the Doings of said Committee; whereupon the Chairman of said Committee made report as follows, viz." [The report begins with an explanation of its main context, that the people of Sheffield] "should esteem ourselves greatly wanting in the Duty we owe ourselves, our Country and Posterity, called upon as we are by our Brethren, the respectable Town of Boston, should we neglect with the utmost Firmness and Freedom, to express the Sense we have of our present dangerous Situation ..." [A series of Resolutions follow, copies of which are available nowadays on many websites under the title of the Sheffield Declaration, based largely on the Boston Pamphlet, but sometimes simplifying the wording in ways which extend the context. For example, Boston's complaint about the use of Admiralty courts to take Americans away from their home provinces and try them before judges acting without juries, becomes in Sheffield] "... the Deprivation of our inestimable and constitutional Privilege, a Trial by Jury, the Determination of our Property by a single Judge paid by one Party, by Money illegally taken from the other for that Purpose ... ... ... it is the Right of every Subject of Great-Britain, to be tried by the Power of the Vicinity, when charged with any Crime, that any Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, for destroying this Priviledge and tearing away Subjects from their Connections, Friends, Business and the Possibility of evincing their Innocense, and carrying them on bear [sic] Suspicion, to the Distance of thousands of Miles, for a Trial, is an intolerable Grievance." [Like the Boston Pamphlet, the list of Resolutions ends with a complaint about provincial boundaries. Again, the Pamphlet had given this a specific context, the recent British decision that the area north of Massachusetts to the west of the Connecticut River should belong to the province of New York, not to New Hampshire.] "... any Determination or Adjudication of the King in Council, with Regard to the Limits of Provinces in America, whereby private Property is or may be affected, is a great Grievance already very severely felt by great Numbers, who after purchasing Lands of the only Persons, whom they could suppose had any Right to convey, have on a sudden, by such an Adjudication, been deprived of their whole Property, and from a state of Affluence, reduced to a state of Beggary." [The resolutions are to be forwarded to David Ingersoll jun., Esq., the local representative in the Great and General Court at Boston, with an additional request:] "... whereas the Province of New-York, by the most unjustifiable Proceedings, have by a late Act of their General Assembly, extended the limits of the County of Albany, East as far as the Connecticut River, and under pretence of having by that Act, the legal Jurisdiction within that part of this Province, by said Act included within the County of Albany, have exercised actual Jurisdiction, and the Officers of the County of Albany, without the least Pretence of any Precept from the Authority on this side the Line, by colour of a Warrant, executed in that County, upon suspicion that a Man had been guilty of a Crime in this County, taken him and conveyed him to Albany for examination- In Indictments Crimes have been said to have been committed at Sheffield in the County of Albany. Mr Ingersoll is hereby requested to use his utmost Influence, that the alarming Consequences, from such Proceedings dreaded, may be prevented, and that the Fears of the People may be quieted by a speedy Determination of that unhappy Controversy." [I have also compiled a page with much, much more information about this dubious extradition] [also in the Massachusetts Spy Or, Thomas's Boston Journal, 18 Feb 1773] [The John Ashley and Theodore Sedgwick named in this document were the same individuals who would, in 1781, find themselves on opposite sides in court when Ashley's slaves Bett and Brom, represented by Sedgwick, used the "born free and equal" clause in the 1780 Masssachusetts constitution to gain their freedom, following which Bett took the name Elizabeth Freeman] | ||
| 4 Jan 1774 |
31 Dec Admiral Saunders, Day, arrived from Newfoundland [The name of this vessel suggests a Canadian home port, as Saunders was involved in the capture of Quebec, and the Newfoundland town of Port Saunders is named after him] | ||
| 3 Feb 1774 |
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| 22 Feb 1774 |
Pass'd in Council, viz. In Council, February 22, 1774. Read and accepted, and Ordered, That the Proprietors and Purchasers of the Upper Township on Housatonnick-River, so called, be empowered to meet and assemble together, upon a Warrant being issued for that Purpose, by any Justice of the Peace for the County of Berkshire; and at such Meeting, or any future one, to appoint meet Persons to procure a Plan of the several Tracts of Land laid out by General Courts Committee, and also of Lands laid out by the Proprietors Committee, as near as possible to their Survey and records; and also a Plan of the East and West Divisions, and the Divisions of the Hopp lands, agreeable to their former Survey; also a Plan of the equalizing Lands, so called, exactly agreeable to a late Survey, taken by William Day ... | ||
| 24 Feb 1774 |
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| 6 Jul 1774 |
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| 15 Feb 1775 |
... Schooner Patty, Day, Virginia. | ||
| 6 May 1775 |
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| 27 May 1775 |
This may certify that Capt. Willm. Day was by the Late General Thomas, appointed a Barrack Master to the camp then in Roxbury on the 27th Day of May AD 1775 and did perform the Duty of Both Barrack master & Quarter master until the 24th Day of Augt. Following pr. Saml. Brewer } Adjutant Genl. at that Time | ||
| 20 Oct 1775 |
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| 27 Oct 1775 |
... Officers for the County of Berkshire. ... Coroners. William Day, and William Goodridge. | ||
| 5 Feb 1776 |
Read and re-committed to Col. Turner, Deacon Allen, and Mr. Singletary. | ||
| 5 Feb 1776 |
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| 6 May 1776 |
Resolved, that there be paid to him out of the Colony Treasury, the Sum of nine Pounds eight Shillings, in full for his Service and Expences for two Months and three Days in the Camps at Roxbury, ending the first Day of August last, Sent up for Concurrence. | ||
| 6 May 1776 |
[This information from a study of the ancestry of James Ingersoll Day, which I have not yet found in earlier sources, sits uneasily with the "active patriot" claim on William's tomb at Springfield, and the quotation seems to use the words of an American taken by a press-gang into the Royal Navy during the War of 1812. However, its claim about feeding and clothing would fit the theory that the above barrack master was Capt. William Day of Sheffield.] | ||
| 22 May 1776 |
[This seems likely to be the mystery William Day who married at Springfield in 1759] | ||
| 18 Jun 1776 |
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Consider this instalment as ending on 4 July 1776. Coming in Part 4- one action-packed year of Revolution at sea. Or: return to start.